The International Institute for Holocaust Research

During the summer of 1943, the city of Hamburg was targeted by intense Allied bombings (Operation Gomorrha, 25.07.1942 - 03.08.1942). As a result of the massive devastation and structural damage, many of the surviving Jewish residents had fled to the countryside. Alongside many other buildings, the headquarters of the Gestapo and the offices of the Jewish administration were completely destroyed. As a result, the index listing of the remaining Jews was lost.
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In October 1943, the office of the so called "Vertrauensmann" (trustee), that replaced the dissolved local administration of the "Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland" (Reich Association of Jews in Germany), submitted a report to the Gestapo stating that the whereabouts of 357 formerly registered Jews were unknown. The Gestapo ordered the organization to compile a new index of the remaining Jewish residents. As a result of the chaotic situation, the authorities were unable to deport any Jews until the end of 1943.

On February 22, 1944, a month after transport VI/9 had left Hamburg, the "Vertrauensmann" (Trustee of the Jewish administration) Max Heinemann stated in a letter to the former head of the community, Max Plaut, that only 980 Jews remained in the city. He noted that the fate of 186 Jewish residents of the city was "unknown". It is likely that the majority of these Jews fell victim to the bombing raids during the summer of 1943, as the Nazis had banned them from entering air raid shelters.

Very little is known about this transport, not even the date of its departure is recorded. It arrived in Theresienstadt on December 6, 1944 and included just one person named Rudolf Franz Hartogh. Hartogh was a well-known painter and had been imprisoned before in a small concentration camp called Farge. Farge was a subcamp of KZ Neuengamme that had been erected to supply slave labour for the construction site of the submarine-bunker "Valentin". Due to the brutal conditions in that camp, Hartogh became very sick and was subsequently transferred to Theresienstadt.

This transport was listed in the Ghetto records as VI/9 EZ. The Roman numeral VI referred to Hamburg as the city of origin, 9 stood for the ninth transport to the city and EZ was an abbreviation for the German term "Einzeltransport" (single transport), a term used for transports that included a small number of people. This was the fifth in a series of five small EZ-deportations that were sent from Hamburg during the period between the larger VI/9- and VI/10-transports. "Einzeltransporte" were usually conducted using normal passenger trains and were often designated for Jews from mixed marriages that had been annulled due to divorce or the death of the non-Jewish spouse.

In Theresienstadt, many of the elderly Jewish deportees died of hunger and disease. Rudolf Franz Hartogh did not share this fate. Despite his poor health he survived Theresienstadt until his liberation.
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